Luke 18:9-14Lesson #27Self Images03/29/2020

apttoteach.org

“What is your self-image?”

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Know yourself

Acceptyourself

Forget about

yourself

Giveyourself

The path to spiritual

formation

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Self Image

• The way we see ourselves shapes our social relationships, our response to trials, and our general sense of wellbeing.

• A good self image is generally equated with mental health - a sense of feeling “up” not “down".

• Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Publican looks at self image in the context of certain spiritual realities which may not leave a person feeling “up”.

Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.”

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“Deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, ‘Something is out of tune’.”

Carl Jung8

“she took from its fruit and ate”

Gen.3:6

1.

sin

I made mistakes

“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was

afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

Gen.3:10

2.

shame

I am a bad person

“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree

and I ate.” Gen.3:12

3.

strategy to relieve the shame

Mistakes were made but not

by me

Human “Soul Sorrow”

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The spiritual contextJames 4

“1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

• Conflict is not questioned but the root of it is.

9• Social conflict has a personal root system.

Two different strategies in managing the shame of sin

“The woman whom You gave to be with me,

she gave me from the tree and I ate.” Gen.3:12

strategy #1 Pharisee

Deny the truthDeflect the blame

Defend the strategy

“the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ,

so that we may be justified by faith.”

Gal.3:24

strategy #2Publican

See the lightCount the cost

Change direction14

Matthew 6 “22 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

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• The way we see things is critical to success in managing life.

• We too often are hamstrung by conflicted passions and visions.

Romans 10 “1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

• Zeal for God is not a virtue without true vision.

Who were the Pharisees?

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• The Pharisees were better at confessing the sins of others than having awarenesss of their own neediness.

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Matthew 21:32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

Who were the Publicans?

• “Tax collectors” - Jewish “private contractors” who worked for the pagan Roman gov. and were viewed as unclean, crooks, and among the worst of sinners.

This parable is about how we see ourselves and one another

in a broken world. 13

Henry Ward Beecher

“You and I do not see things as they are.

We see things as we are.”

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Luke 18 “9 And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.11 The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

13 But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” 4

Blaise PascalFrench philosopher

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous, who believe themselves sinners; the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.”

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if it is entitled,prideful,superficial, judgmental, and & if it blinds us to ourselves and God.

Satan inspires “holiness”

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“The longer I live the more clearly I see my own depravity and God’s grace in Christ toward me.”

John Stott15

How can we develop the right heart?1. Recognize that Jesus came first of all to

reveal the gracious heart of God.John 3

“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

This got Jesus in trouble with the Pharisees.17

How can we develop the right heart?2. Recognize that Jesus also came to

seek broken hearted men and women.Luke 5

“16 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax-gatherers and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax-gatherers and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

This also got Jesus in trouble.18

Jesus welcomed sinners without condemning them.

• Matthew 9:9-13 Jesus calls Matthew (a Publican) to be a disciple.

• Matthew 11:19 Jesus is called a “friend of sinners”.• Luke 15 Three parables of seeking the lost.

• Luke 19:1-10 Jesus dines with Zaccheus (chief of tax collectors (Publican)).

• John 4:7-26 Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well.

• John 8:1-11 Jesus with the adulterous woman.

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Matthew 4 “8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.””

• Matthew as a disciple is “bad optics” for God’s base.

• Paul as a disciple is even worse for God’s base.

• N.T. church is not much better.

1 Corinthians 1 “28 . . .God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,”

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How can we develop the right heart?3. Recognize and resist the symptoms of a

“Pharisee spirit” in YOUR life.

• “I have a lot of friends who need to hear this.” PUT YOURSELF AT THE HEAD OF THE LIST.

Matthew 7 “1 Do not judge lest you be judged. . . 3 And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?. . . 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

• The CORONAVIRUS is a product of the “Fall” and therefore is a symbol of OUR need for deliverance.

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Others are: I am:legalistic

angry

fearful

careless

selfish

wasteful

materialistic

principled

intense

cautious

flexible

conservative

generous

tasteful

Deny the truth

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Deflect the blame

“It’s not whether you win or lose but

where you place the blame.”

“Mistakes were made but not by

me.”

“You need to let me explain....”

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by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson 24

“The trouble is that once people develop an implicit theory, the confirmation bias kicks in and they stop seeing evidence that doesn’t fit it.”

Carol Tavris (psychologist)

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Defend the strategy

“Show up, shut up, cough up, look busy, and

act holy.”

“We are the church of the good

looking sheep.”

“God must be proud to have a disciple like ME!”

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Matthew 6 “22 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

4. Pray that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened to see ourselves and God.

Ephesians 1 “18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” 27

How can we have the benefits of a NDE

How to find passion for “THANKS and WOW”

when you can’t seem to get

“HELP”! 28

• Notice what is not mentioned with respect to the Publican’s life. 1. No accounting of his moral merits.2. No penance for his moral demerits.

• The word “be merciful” is the word translated elsewhere as “propitiate” or in the O.T. “atone for”. The Publican begs to be included in the blessings of the temple offering of atonement as he simply acknowledges that he is unworthy.

Notes on Lk.18:9-14

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What is the point of the parable?

1. This is not a complete picture of the Gospel.• It does not address God’s FULL provision

of salvation.• It does not address the FULL nature of a

person’s faith response to God.• It does not address the FULL meaning of

what the fruit of justification should look like.

2. The focus is on the nature of a heart that sees the light of the Gospel and responds so as to walk in it.

• It sees and responds to God as Redeemer Lord.

• It sees “self” as a humble sinner in the need of God’s grace.

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• crying out to God,

The Publican’s profile of faith

• who is its only hope,• for atoning grace.

• A broken heart,

Luke 18 “But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”

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Thomas Carlyle(historian, philosopher)

“Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.”

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Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will

not despise.”

The Gospel is the story of two broken hearts.

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Of all the things we can offer God it is our broken heart that He longs to see because it is the only door that is big enough for His Spirit to enter.

Nothing in our hands we bring, and not from pride of battles won, nor a fear of falling back, nor past regrets from misplaced dreams, but only in God’s gift of grace though faith in His Redeemer Son will we find our hope and peace, our heart’s desire and delight.

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The rather “unusual” testimony of the composer of this powerful song punctuates the point of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. It will make the message of the parable shockingly clear. Brace yourself. Google - Marsha Stevens - Wikipedia.

For Those Tears I Died sung by Destiny Cross

Die Gedanken sind freiCome Unto Me

Other songs by Destiny Cross

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo4919vzet7c6na/ForThoseTearsIDied.mp3